


Experimentation

by StarlightDragon



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, First Meetings, Fluff, Happy Ending, Love at First Sight, M/M, Minor Castiel/Dean Winchester, Pining, Social Experiments, kind of?, small nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2015-06-24
Packaged: 2018-04-05 23:59:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4200060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightDragon/pseuds/StarlightDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A bored Gabriel Novak conducts a social experiment to see how many people he can convince to kiss him. One kiss, and then he'll forget all about them. But with one test subject, that doesn't end up quite working out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Experimentation

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write more Sabriel. I also wanted to write more GOOD Sabriel, but that might have to wait a little longer, since I started a new job and work is crazy busy and I'm only getting time to write late at night when I'm deliriously tired.
> 
> Disclaimer 1: This is based on a true story; my friend carried out this experiment with myself and another friend as the assistants. It DOES work and is a ton of fun, but if you're going to try it, be respectful to people.
> 
> Disclaimer 2: Some things Gabe does are creepy as hell. It's romantic because it's fiction and because they're both doing it, but don't stalk people, kids.

"Will you kiss me?"

The girl blushed and glanced down at the ground, not meeting Gabriel's eyes, but after a moment, she nodded. Gabriel cupped her face and slowly drew closer to her, before softly pressing his lips against hers for a few seconds and pulling away.

"Thanks very much. You've been a great help."

"No problem," she managed to squeak out before hurrying away down the road.

Gabe turned around and raised his arms in the air, triumphant. "Add that one to the tally, boys. How many is that now?"

Balthazar frowned. "That's, uh, six who've said yes, right?"

Ash nodded, checking his spreadsheet. "Six yeses, three nos, and one guy who ran away in terror. Not a bad ratio overall."

"It's you guys who are bringing me down." Gabe clapped both of them on the back, laughing. "They probably thought they'd have to kiss you too and got scared."

Balthazar rolled his eyes. "They wish they could kiss me."

"So that's ten we've asked; are we done for the day?" Ash folded his laptop shut.

Gabriel considered this for a moment. "Come on, one more to finish off with. The guy who ran away didn't count."

"Alright, but I've got a date tonight. I'm leaving right after you ask, whether they say yes or no," Balthazar insisted.

"Fine. I'm a gambling man, I'll take that."

Gabe glanced up and down the street, sparkling eyes scouting out his next victim. He had to choose carefully. You couldn't go for someone who was in a group; they'd be awkward and embarrassed in front of their friends. No good if they were talking on the phone or looked like they were in a hurry, if they were listening to music, if they had bags they were struggling to carry, and stay well away from anyone wearing a T-shirt with a douchey slogan.

He passed over the first five people to walk past him for one or more of these reasons, and the sixth just because she looked kind of intimidating. The seventh, he almost called out to, but then he saw she was wearing a wedding ring.

"Come on, Gabe, what's taking so long?" Ash yelled from their bench on the grass.

"Give me time to work!" he shouted back, turning around, and when he turned back, he saw him.

The guy was ambling slowly up the path like he hadn't really had a chance to grow into his too-long legs yet. His plaid shirt was frayed like it had belonged to his dad before him, and his hair probably hadn't been cut since 2005. He scuffed his shoe along the ground as he walked, looking vaguely bored, a textbook tucked under his arm.

He was the perfect next target.

Gabriel bounded over to him. "Excuse me?"

The boy stumbled, looking down at Gabe in surprise, and Gabe's eyes widened. He hadn't expected him to be quite so _tall._ Would he even be able to reach him to kiss him?

No, he was getting ahead of himself. The guy hadn't even said yes yet.

"Can I ask you a couple of questions? I'm doing a social experiment. It'll only take a moment." Gabe grinned and winked at the boy.

"Sure," he nodded after a brief pause.

"Great!" Gabe put his hand on the boy's back to guide him over to the side of the road, just out of the way. "Okay, first question, are you single?"

The boy frowned. "Are you _sure_ this is a social experiment? But, um, yes, I am."

"Awesome. I can see why you're skeptical, but it's definitely a social experiment. Just collecting data right now... for, you know, analysis." He tried to sound scientific and wise. "So, next question, will you kiss me?"

"What?" the other boy blurted, taking a step backwards.

"For science. I can explain the purpose of the experiment afterwards." He'd never admit it, but Gabe thought his reaction was adorable. Nobody else had been quite so outwardly taken by surprise.

The boy glanced around him, checking to see if anyone else was in the vicinity. They were alone, except for Ash and Balthazar, who quickly looked away and pretended to be involved in something on Ash's laptop.

"I wouldn't normally just... kiss someone. You know, randomly."

Gabe suddenly took pity on the boy. He'd been teasing with all the other test subjects, but for some reason, he didn't want to pressure this guy into anything. "It's okay if you don't want to."

"No, I'll do it," he said quickly, not meeting Gabriel's eyes. "I just wanted you to know that it's not something I do all the time."

"That's okay, I believe you," Gabe smiled encouragingly. "It's not like this is a situation most people are in a lot."

The boy grinned and nodded, and then the two of them just stood there, looking at each other, waiting.

Close up, Gabe realized, he was actually really cute. Instead of leaning in right away for the kiss, he just watched, taking in every detail of his face, getting lost in the moment.

The other boy broke it. "So do we just-"

Gabriel was almost disappointed that he wouldn't be able to just _look_ any longer. "Yeah. We just kiss. Just like a normal... kiss."

"Okay," the boy said, and he ducked down, far more smoothly than Gabriel had thought he'd be able to, capturing Gabe's lips with his own. Gabe parted his lips slightly, automatically, and for the first time in this experiment, he felt like he wasn't the one in control of the kiss. And if this boy's lips would just keep fluttering around his own exactly like that, making him lightheaded, he didn't mind at all. 

Then, just as suddenly, the boy pulled back and stood up to his full height again. He looked just as dorky and nervous as he had before, and if Gabe couldn't still feel a slight tingle on his lips, it would have been easy for him to believe he'd imagined the last few seconds. 

"Like that? Was that right?"

Gabe nodded, dazed, trying to catch his breath. "Yeah, pretty much. That was... fine."

The boy grinned, looking almost apologetic, like he felt bad for getting into it so much. "So... what was the experiment about?"

"Testing the trust levels of strangers. Looking to see whether somebody would be willing to kiss someone they'd never met in their life before, purely because they were asked to."

"And the findings?"

Gabe shook his head sadly. "Very inconclusive. College campus means a very small sample pool, so I can't really make generalizations. But I got to kiss a whole bunch of cute people today, so it definitely wasn't a waste of time." Especially now.

The boy laughed, blushing slightly, and then they fell into silence again, looking into each other's eyes.

Shit. Gabe wanted to kiss him again.

No. That was against the rules. And besides, the boy probably wouldn't even want to. He was probably straight. Probably just being polite.

But the way he was looking at Gabriel...

Gabe had almost made up his mind to lean in and go for it, when the boy cleared his throat and stepped back. "Right. I should be going. I have a whole bunch of homework due tomorrow."

"Yeah. Yeah, of course. I'm sorry to keep you."

"No, it's no problem, but now I really have to-" He gestured in the direction of the dorms and shrugged.

"Yeah, I get it. Thanks so much for taking part!" Gabe called after the boy as he left, receiving a little wave and a smile in return.

His feet feeling heavy all of a sudden, Gabe headed over to where Ash and Balthazar were waiting for him.

"How fucking long did that take? I swear to you, Gabe, if I'm late for my date-"

"Shut up, Bal," Gabe cut in. "This is serious. That was the best kiss I've ever had in my life."

Ash looked doubtful. "It lasted, what, like two seconds?"

"I don't care. It was perfect. Everything about him was perfect."

"Well, why didn't you get his number?" Balthazar asked, exasperated. 

"I don't know." Gabe put his face in his hands. "I just wasn't sure what to say, and I was scared he'd think the experiment was just a really bad pick up line, and I didn't want him to reject me, and then he had to leave and I just..."

"He seemed into you from where I was standing," Ash shrugged.

"Whatever. It's not exactly like that helps me now." In fact, it made him feel worse.

Gabriel grabbed his backpack and swung it over his shoulder, defeated. "Come on. Let's get back to the dorms. You can get ready for your date and I'm supposed to be getting dinner with my dumb brother and his new boyfriend."

But Gabriel didn't pay that much attention to the conversation during dinner that night. Not that either of the other two seemed to notice, considering how wrapped up in each other they were. More than once, Gabe caught his brother feeding his boyfriend little bites of food off his fork, which made Gabe scowl in disgust.

Disgust, not jealousy.

This was ridiculous. He'd shared one kiss and no more than a couple minutes' conversation with the too-tall Sasquatch-esque guy in the plaid and yet he was all Gabe could think about. And it wasn't even like Gabe _did_ the whole dating thing. As evidenced yesterday, he was the kind of guy who kissed seven people in one day without knowing any of their names and then moved on completely. He would absolutely never be caught dead, for example, taking someone to a restaurant and feeding them his food.

Not even if they had beautiful eyes and adorable floppy hair and blushed when Gabe flirted with them and kissed like it was the last thing they would ever do.

"How would you find someone if you didn't know their name?" he blurted all of a sudden.

Economics.

The guy had been carrying an economics textbook; that was the only lead Gabriel had. Economics classes took place in the business building; a place Gabe had never been and which frankly scared him - all those people running around in smart suits like they actually knew what they were doing with their lives - but it might be the best chance Gabe had to actually find this guy.

Cas and his new boyfriend, though understandably confused by the question and Gabriel's insistence that none of his friends be allowed to help him in his search for the mystery man, had eventually determined that Gabe needed to focus on any small detail he'd noticed about the person that might narrow down who they were or where they were going to be, and use that as a starting point. The economics textbook was the only thing he could come up with.

So, the following morning he pulled himself out of bed earlier than he had since high school, brushed his hair five times, tucked his laptop under his arm so that he fit in better with the general crowd, and made his way down to the business building. It was all polished glass and shiny chrome; and a million miles away from the dilapidated concrete buildings that housed the drama practice rooms, and he felt really, really out of place, but nobody tried to stop him as he bought a coffee and a sticky pastry and went to sit down at a small table in the main entrance with a good view of the doors. 

He opened his laptop, but it was completely for show, as he spent the whole of his time looking over the top of it towards the entrance, glancing all around the room every few seconds just in case he'd missed him.

By lunchtime Gabe still hadn’t seen the boy, and he had classes of his own to get to, so, defeated, he folded up his computer and trailed out of the building, desperately looking behind him one last time to check for a final miracle. But nothing happened.

Tuesday was a repeat performance of Monday, and by the end of it, he was sure people were starting to look at him strangely. Maybe one of them would come over, ask him what he was doing there for such a long time? Then he could ask them if they knew a really tall guy with brown hair and… yeah, that wouldn’t make him sound crazy at all. 

Nobody said anything to him, and the boy didn’t show, and Gabriel was off his theater game all afternoon.

On Wednesday, he decided to give it one last try. His classes didn’t start until later than they had on the first two days, so maybe staying into the afternoon would help him find the boy if his Economics class started then. 

But in the end, Gabe didn’t even have to wait that long. He’d only been sitting down an hour or so when the doors swung open and the boy appeared.

Gabe had to blink a few times to be sure it was really him. Maybe he’d just been picturing him for so long that now he was hallucinating, so desperate to see him that he projected his memories onto anyone that looked even vaguely similar. But no, that was definitely him, and he looked even more adorable than Gabe had remembered as he shuffled towards the main staircase, clutching a protein shake in one hand and an important looking paper in the other.

This was his chance.

Gabe stood up, squaring his shoulders and gathering all his confidence. He was going to do this. He was ready. He was prepared. What did he have to lose?

He would just be cool. He would walk up to the boy, say something like 'hey, I remember you, you did my experiment!' Then casually try to bring the conversation round to phone numbers and perhaps repeat performances.

Easy as.

The boy reached the stairs and turned, glancing around the main hallway, seemingly looking for something. His eyes landed on where Gabe was standing.

Instinctively, Gabe ducked down behind the table he'd been sitting at.

 _Shit,_ he cursed as he tucked his legs up to his chest. Fuck. He'd missed his chance now. He'd look even more stupid if he got up from behind the table and went to talk to the guy. He just hadn't wanted the guy to see him before he was ready... he'd hoped to be the one to surprise _him,_ to get the upper hand. And now he'd ruined it.

Why had he panicked?

He did have a lot to lose, after all. He could make a fool of himself, or worse, he could make himself seem like a stalker. This guy could tell all his friends about the pathetic kid who’d been following him around just based on one kiss. The guy probably had a whole bunch of other admirers who didn’t do fucked up things like ask to kiss strangers on the street. And he was probably straight; probably only kissed Gabe for a laugh. Most likely, Gabe would end up getting shot down in the middle of the business building, laughed out of the room by this guy who was clearly far too smart for Gabe, and everyone in school would hear the story of the guy who was so desperate to get laid that he had to perform a dumb 'experiment'.

He waited until the boy was out of the way, and then he picked up his laptop and slunk out of the building.

Gabe had thought that now that he'd messed up once, it would be over. Only, now he knew exactly where the guy was going to be at a specific time in the week. And the following Wednesday, he just couldn't help himself sitting down in the same spot, just looking to catch a glimpse of the boy as he walked to his class...

He ducked his head and hid when the guy appeared and started walking in his general direction, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of that small smile, and his mind was flooded with memories of a kiss that had left his knees weak.

After the third Wednesday, people were getting impatient.

"Gabriel, you're the one who told me I should-" and Gabe could hear the air quotes in the next phrase, even over the phone- "'get off my ass' and ask Dean out rather than just stare at him while he works. This isn't you. You should either talk to him, or move on and find someone you don't feel so nervous around."

Balthazar had a different approach.

"If you don't stop stalking this dude, Gabe, I swear to God I will post those pictures I found of you in middle school all around the business building and make sure he sees them! Is that what you want?"

Gabe knew they both had a point.

But still, the following week, without even consciously thinking about it, Gabe's legs started taking him in the direction of where he knew his mystery kisser would be.

It had been a month since the kiss, he realized. A whole month he’d spent hung up on this boy.

What was the point? By now, if they talked, it probably wouldn’t even be the same. He’d blown it all up in his head like it had been this amazing kiss and this conversation stuffed full with sexual tension, but then again, his dad always did say he had an overactive imagination.

He stilled, his hand on the door to the building.

He was done.

He turned back, pushing his way through an annoyed crowd of people lining up to get through the doors behind him, and strode across campus to the dining hall. 

He’d wasted far too much time on this, and it was time for him to get the fuck over himself. He’d get some food, then he’d go to his afternoon classes, and tomorrow he would call Ash and Balthazar and they’d repeat the experiment and he’d kiss seven more people who were even hotter than that guy had been. Then he’d go to a party, get drunk, have a one night stand and he’d feel much better.

Armed with a plan of action, Gabe felt much better as he loaded ice cream into a bowl and topped it with brownie bits, caramel sauce and four different kinds of sprinkles, and he didn’t notice somebody follow him into the room, panting and out of breath from jogging to catch him. 

Gabe sat himself down at a corner table, out of the way where nobody would bother him, and assumed he’d be left alone to eat his food, until-

"Hey, you're the guy who did the experiment, right?"

Gabriel looked up from his giant bowl of ice cream, and came face to face with... an old, worn plaid shirt. Then he looked up a little further, and he saw a face - the face he'd been searching for for weeks.

This was definitely inside his head. He'd finally gone delirious from too much sugar.

"What?" he gasped.

"The experiment... the one where you asked random people to kiss you. You probably don't remember, you were probably drunk or something..." The boy sounded disappointed, and he turned to leave.

"No, I remember!" Gabe insisted. There was no way he was letting him leave again without at least getting his name.

The boy smiled, relieved, but then his face fell again. "Wait, you remember the experiment, or you remember me?"

"Both. Definitely both," Gabe assured him.

"Oh," the boy said, as though he hadn't expected to hear that. He stared at Gabe, his eyes wide and his lips parted in shock, and Gabe found himself gripping the chair next to him to stop himself jumping up on top of it and just kissing the guy senseless.

"I've actually been kind of hoping I'd see you again at some point." He sounded even more hesitant than usual.

Gabe didn't even dare to hope. He'd never had this kind of reaction to just _looking_ at someone before, and it was too much for him to believe that the other guy felt anything too. "You have?"

"I have. I've been doing a social experiment of my own."

"Oh yeah, and what's that?" Gabe bit his lip, trying to hold back a smirk.

"Yeah, I have. It's about how many times I have to go into the business building, despite not taking a single business class, before this other guy who's always in there and also doesn't take any business classes will stop hiding from me and actually come over to talk to me."

Gabriel's smirk faded, and he just gaped.

"That textbook I had with me at the experiment belonged to a friend. And, I know your brother, and he told me you're in the theater program and don't take business. So I thought, maybe... maybe you had another reason for being there whenever I was. And I didn't think you'd have time to be stalking every single person from the experiment, so I thought maybe..."

The noise in the rest of the cafeteria had completely disappeared. Gabriel couldn't focus on anything except this guy's words. There could have been a fire alarm, complete with sprinklers, and Gabe would have had no idea so long as this conversation could just keep going. "Maybe... what?"

"Maybe you'd like it if we went on some kind of date. Dinner, or something. What do you think?"

Gabe tried to keep his tone as casual and playful as usual as he replied, "Depends. Are you going to kiss me again afterwards like you did before?"

The boy raised his eyebrows. "I guess that depends on how well the night goes."

"Oh, I'm up to that challenge," Gabe waved a hand airily, though privately he was already freaking out about how he was going to impress this guy and make this date a success.

"Okay, good. Can you do Friday at seven? If we meet in front of the big tree in the quad?"

Gabriel nodded. "I have theater practice until seven, but for you, I'll blow it off early. I'll see you then."

"Alright." The boy grinned, swinging his hands by his sides like he couldn't decide whether or not he could stay and keep talking. "I'm Sam, by the way. In case that's relevant... or changes anything... no, of course it doesn't, I'll shut up."

"And I'm Gabriel. Or Gabe. Whichever," he replied, having given up all pretense of keeping the stupid smile off his face.

"I know that already, I'm a better stalker than you," Sam chuckled. He reached over to ruffle Gabriel's hair, then turned and walked out of the dining hall.

Gabe put his hands in his hair and did a little dance where he sat, unable to believe that had worked.

The experiment had been a success. There was no need for further trials.


End file.
